Brother Reportedly Fired At Suspect After Slaying

Minutes after killing his mother, Andrew M. Hunsberger almost became a shooting victim himself, according to testimony at a preliminary hearing yesterday in Quakertown.

When Hunsberger's youngest brother, Daniel, learned his mother had been shot dead, he fired two rifle shots at Andrew but missed, Trooper Everett J. Goff of state police at Dublin testified before District Justice Kathryn L. Stump.

Andrew, 23, was ordered held for trial without bail in Bucks County Prison. He is charged with first-degree murder in the slaying of Carol N. Hunsberger, 45, a mother of five.

Goff testified the slaying suspect surrendered to police Oct. 14 - the day of the killing - shortly after noon outside his mother's Milford Township home. Daniel, after trying to shoot Andrew with a .22-caliber rifle, remained in the home, the trooper said.

Police advised Daniel by phone to surrender with "hands up."

Daniel ran from the home about 12:45 p.m., according to Goff, pointed at Andrew, who was in police custody, and said, "He shot my mother. I fired two shots at him but missed."

Police said no charges will be filed against Daniel.

Goff said Andrew flagged down police shortly after the shooting and confessed to the killing.

According to the trooper, Andrew emerged from dense woods surrounding the home on Old Woods Road shortly after noon, walked to within 10 feet of Goff's police car, pointed toward the home and said, "The house is up there. I shot my mother."

Police found Andrew carrying .38-caliber bullets and shotgun shells in his pockets.

They found Mrs. Hunsberger in a corner of the living room on her side. She was without a pulse and her body was cold, Goff said.

Police confiscated a .22-caliber rifle found on a living room chair and a 12-gauge shotgun found on a bed in the upstairs master bedroom, according to the trooper.

After obtaining a search warrant, Goff said, police found a .38-caliber revolver in the front passenger seat of the suspect's white-and-blue van, which was parked at the home.

Goff said he inspected the weapon and found a single spent shell under the hammer.

Under cross-examination by Stuart Wilder of the Bucks County Public Defender's Office, Goff said there was no evidence that a struggle or fight had taken place between Hunsberger and his mother.

Police and prosecutors have declined comment when asked if they had determined a motive for the killing.

Trooper Thomas Karpovich, who attended the autopsy performed a day after the killing, testified he was told by forensic pathologist Isidore Mihalakis that the woman had received no wounds other than the single gunshot to the back of her head.

Powder burns near the entry site and powder in the wound, he said, indicated the shot was fired at "very, very close range." In fact, Karpovich testified, "The gun could have been right up against the head."

"He (Mihalakis) assumed she died instantly or very shortly after she was shot," Karpovich said.

Throughout the testimony, Hunsberger sat passively, only occasionally raising his lowered head. At the end of the hearing, Stump asked the defendant if he understood what had transpired.

He looked up and said, "Huh?"

She repeated the question, and he said, "Yeah."

The victim's husband, Curtis, and sons Daniel, Michael and Jeffrey sat together behind the prosecutor's table. Several times the sons turned toward their father, who looked on grimly.

Security was tight at the Upper Bucks Annex of the Bucks County Courthouse, where the hearing was held.

Quakertown police said threats had been made against the defendant but declined to say who made them.

Visitors were allowed to enter the building only through the entrance fronting Route 309. Metal detectors were used by Quakertown police, a state trooper was outside the building and two constables and a policeman were in the courtroom.

Hunsberger, shackled at the hands and feet, was escorted into the court wearing a black flak jacket, which covered his body from his neck to lower torso.